Worthy Adversaries
by Heather Anderson
Summary: On a visit to Earth Martouf has to compete with Rodney McKay for Sam's attention. Martouf.:.Sam.:.Rodney McKay. related to the samandmartouf group and the tokra resistance group at yahoo. Complete.
1. Unique

WORTHY ADVERSARIES

BY HEATHER ANDERSON

Summary: On a visit to Earth Martouf has to compete with Rodney McKay for Sam's attention.

Based on lieutenantcresent's challenge (post no.6472) at the samandmartouf group at yahoo. 

Category: Romance/Humour

Characters: Martouf/Sam/Rodney McKay

Rating: PG-13

A/N: Canon timeline does not apply! Set in season 4. Vague spoilers. McKay returned to area 51 after _48 Hours_. Martouf/Lantash survived _Summit/Last Stand_ together.

Thanks to Marta Lorentz. And special thanks to Pagan Twylight!

•

•

•

"Hey, You," Sam drawled, smiling brightly at Martouf as they wandered casually down the SGC hallway outside the gate room towards each other, "Back so soon?"

"Soon? It feels like I've been away for ever," he said, stopping an arm's length away.

"Are you ready to get started?"

"Light my way, gracious hostess."

As they walked she noted, "You didn't bring anything with you."

He looked down at his empty hands, "It didn't occur to me. I'm sorry. How rude of me. I will make it up to you."

"No, not for me. I mean a change of clothes, that sort of thing."

"If you don't mind I would like to experience life as a Tauri this week. Down to the smallest details."

"Fair enough. What would you like to do while you're here?"

"I'm afraid this is will be presumptuous," he began but she encouraged him to speak freely. "I would like to see your home."

That was about the last thing she would have expected from him. "Oh. It's nothing special. It's pretty plain. You know I spend the vast majority of my time here. In many ways this is my home. Anyway, I can take you anywhere on Earth. Wouldn't you like to see some of the wonders?"

"Yes. But I have seen many wonders of the galaxy. Which is why I would like to see something unique in the universe."

She was flattered. She considered it, shook her head and warned, "You'll be disappointed."

He met her eyes and waited until she caved.

"Sure, why not? Do you want to go now?"

"I would love to."

"Then you'd better get changed."

She took him to the guest quarters he was already familiar with from previous stays and opened the wardrobe inside.

"T-shirts and jeans. It's practically the civilian uniform. You'll blend right in."

He walked up to check them out and immediately began to undress. She quickly turned around. When he saw her turn and head for the exit he smiled.

"By the time you reach that door I will be dressed."

She froze halfway across the room. A moment later he stood in front of her in blue jeans and a dark shirt, which he pointed to.

"You chose this? I like it."

"I thought it was important to remember."

"It's a little strange to be wearing this. My ancestors left Earth millennia ago and now I'm back here. Every time I wear and wearing this style I look like… it's like they never left."

"And this is just the beginning."

•

The feel of the cold air circulating inside the car roof, the inexact steering, the engine's low rumble, the motion, the tires on the textured bitumen road. Martouf enjoyed it the way the fearless enjoy turbulence.

As Sam walked up the path to her front door she noticed Martouf looking down the street at all the houses, all of very similar colour and size.

"Not looking so unique anymore, huh?"

He picked a flower from the garden along the way and offered it to her. She accepted it and studied its form, the radiance of its imperfect, white petals.

"Is it unique? Now that you are holding it? Now that I have given it to you?"

She gazed into his eyes in wonder. He met her gaze confidently.

"It was unique even before I picked it. Even before I saw it."

He looked down at the key she was holding ready between her fingers.

She offered it, "would you like to?"

Martouf took the key and slipped it into the steel lock, turning it until he heard a loud click. He turned the handle and swung the door open slowly. It was gloomy inside. The flat walls were light like the outside of the house. He felt her hand on his shoulder blade urging him to go inside as she followed. As she closed the door the dead bolt clicked locked. Each room was a box attached to the others. The designs of her possessions were different. Connections to the things he already knew about Sam's interests and personality manifested rarely. The place was almost entirely functional. Abstract concepts seemed to be her favourite possessions. Notwithstanding that the term 'work' was an extreme understatement for the amazing things this woman did: she lived for it.

•

Later that morning the two went to the Garden of the Gods and then had lunch at a fast food restaurant at a mall. They spent hours wandering around afterwards. Martouf was particularly fascinated by a costume and gag shop and chose some souvenirs for his Tok'Ra friends off world. After dinner at a pizzeria they were relaxing at Sam's in front of a movie on TV. Martouf chose to watch a commercial channel and paid as much attention to the adds as the feature, _Kate & Leopold_. The end credits began to roll and Sam stretched languidly and glanced at her watch.

"We should get back to the base, it's getting very late."

"Must we return?"

She relaxed back into the sofa, "I guess we could somehow forget to," she suggested.

"That would be convenient," he said resting his head back.

"Agreed?"

"Agreed," he smiled.

She curled up on her side of the sofa and put her head on the armrest, closing her eyes. He rolled his head to the side to watch her.

Sensing that, she opened an eye, "what are you looking at, Astroboy?"

"I'm not sure," he said squinting. She slapped him and closed her eye again as he laughed.

"Go to sleep. Whatever it is, you'll have plenty of time to look at it tomorrow."

The next thing she was aware of was sunlight on her eyelids. She was lying on her stomach across the entire length of the sofa hugging a cushion. The Beatles' _Across the Universe_ was playing on her stereo, the Today show was on her TV and she could hear her microwave. When she opened her eyes she saw a mess of snack wrappers on the coffee table in the sunlight filtering through the house. She stretched luxuriously and heard Martouf walk over and sit down opposite in an armchair. It was a wonderful feeling to have some life in the house and the exceptional company of Martouf and Lantash.

"Good morning, Samantha."

"Morning," she mumbled and turned over to look at him. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open at the sight of him. His hair was wet and his bare chest was covered in droplets of water. She shielded her view of his lower half with her hand.

"Pop tart?" he asked holding one up, deadpan for as long as he could manage until he broke into a belly laugh. "I am not naked, Samantha! Though the thought did occur to me," his eyes gleamed from the sunlight. She realized it was Lantash speaking.

She frowned and lowered her hand hesitantly to discover that he was wearing a towel.

"Right," she was unable to stop staring. "You're only naked under that towel," she said with a touch of flippancy.

"My clothes are in the dryer."

"Of course..." she said and then her expression quickly changed to dread. She jumped up and rushed to the laundry. He appeared behind her in time to see her pull out and hold up his t-shirt.

"That is not the same shirt I put in," he said as they both look at it unamused.

"Perhaps we could give it to a child," Martouf said.

_Or make one to fit into it, _suggested Lantash in his thoughts.

She shook her head, "The message doesn't apply to kids."

'_OBEY GRAVITY, it's the LAW!'_

Sam shoved the shirt back in to the dryer and they went into the kitchen.

"After this 'disaster', I can see that it really should have been Daniel showing you around as originally planned. He's been chained to his desk."

"Interesting metaphor."

"Interesting and accurate. He's starting to lose his social skills."

"So you did not want to spend time with me?" he baited.

She recognized the tone of voice and played along though not in the way she knew he wanted, "why would I?"

His eyes flashed and he lifted his head high, "why would you?" he repeated putting his hands on his hips.

A smile pulled at her mouth, and she practically laughed at him, "I'm sorry, but you remind me of Buzz Lightyear when you stand like that. You look like you're going to take off."

He put his arms down, "you are in a great deal of trouble, Samantha."

She smiled, "really?" and moved behind her kitchen counter for cover.

"In addition to that, I am becoming hungry."

"So that's what this is all about!"

"No," he responded impetuously and then demanded, "make me popcorn."

"I'll make your into something else in a minute," she reached into a cupboard and a threw a packet at him, "make it yourself." She pointed to the microwave as she left the room to answer the phone.

"Another reason I practically live there," she said when she returned to the kitchen, "apparently I'm indispensable. They need me back to the base. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," he said.

"Its probably best if you stay here since..." she looked down at the towel, "you have no clothes on. I'll see what's happening and bring you back some things."

Martouf followed her to the front door and he picked up her grey camo jacket. He held it up as she walked over to him and she turned around for him to help her put it on. He watched from a window as she pulled out in her car.

•

"Major Carter. When we couldn't contact you yesterday we had to call in another scientist," said General Hammond as she walked into the briefing room.

"I'm sorry sir, my cell phone's reception must have been blocked at some point."

Then Sam noticed a civilian sitting at the table. It was Dr. Rodney McKay. "Very, very sorry," she said taking a deep breath.


	2. Daggers

McKay looked up from his notes and directly at her on hearing her voice. He immediately got up and circled the table to say hello.

"It's a pleasure to see you again Major," he said looking her over approvingly, taking her hand in both of his though she hadn't offered it.

She resisted the urge to snatch back her hand until he released it. Sam took her seat on the opposite side of the table. Hammond entrusted McKay with describing the problem and left to take care of other business.

"So, McKay, what do we have here?" she asked pointing to the small device she noticed on the table between them. It was a wooden sphere with black lines engraved around its surface in swirling patterns.

"Please, call me Rodney."

"Sure thing, McKay," she smiled sweetly.

He chose to ignore that rejection and turned his attention to the device, "that's a little something SG6 brought home from P3X-809 a few days ago. It didn't appear to be active in any way until yesterday."

"What does it do?"

"If you'll follow me," he said picking it up. It fit comfortably in his hand. They headed to the gate control room where a single technician, Turner, was sitting at her station keeping watch over the monitors. Every monitor looked normal but when Sam gave them a closer inspection were displaying gibberish.

"I like to call it the 'Universal Encrypter'."

Sam tried typing in a few commands but they were ineffectual.

"You finished wasting time?" he asked irritably.

She raised her eyebrows and straightened up, deciding that any given second he could be on the floor with a bleeding nose.

He tensed under her glare but his mouth ran on, "all the other technicians have moved on to fritter away everyone's time by working on the problem from the mainframe. This is the key," he said holding the device up at eye level. "We figure out how to reverse the signal from this little baby and problem solved. Figure out how to use it, bonus level."

"Can't we just blow it up?" she quipped.

"Haha, Major. It's a good thing there aren't any teams out there right now."

"When did you start to care?"

"Believe it or not, I am aware that there's a lot of dirt to clean up around the universe. I'm just trying to keep the scrubbers alive."

Sam's jaw clenched.

McKay seemed to get the message and excused himself, "When you feel like doing something about this, come down to the lab."

"My lab," she corrected.

"Whatever."

As he left she threw several daggers and an axe into his back. Then she calmed herself and picked up the phone to call Martouf.

"Still holding down the fort?"

"I _was_ thinking of going out…" Martouf baited.

She laughed, "there are laws against that kind of thing here. Unless you were planning on wearing my clothes, in which case, it's still a conservative neighborhood."

"Is everything ok there?"

"We're having some major issues with some foreign technology, if you know what I mean. I have to stay for a while and try to sort it out. Do you want to come and take a look?"

"You have made me curious."

"I'll send someone over to… actually I'll pick you up. I'll leave now."

"I await your arrival."

•

When Sam got home she found Martouf at her computer.

He spun around in the swivel chair and his eyes glowed, "So, Samantha… you did not want anyone to know how you are keeping me locked up," said Lantash.

In response she dumped the bag of supplies in his lap, "what are you doing online?"

" 'chatting', apparently. It is a very interesting web site,' he said kneeling to search through the bag on the floor.

"The Major Stacey Monroe Testosterone Brigade? Oh ." Sam dropped to the floor and yanked the power cord from the outlet.

She held up the cord, threateningly, "you ever go there again and so help me…"

She saw that Lantash had put on a black T which said, _I'm blogging this_. He simply looked at her and let the towel fall to the floor. Her natural reaction was to look away. The fact that he didn't mind was part of the reason she couldn't look. If he'd been shy she might have taunted him a little. But, no, it was her practically squirming.

When he was finished dressing and was clean shaved they returned to the base. Once inside Sam described the device and its effects.

Martouf said, "it would be good to know if it effects Tok'Ra technology, however, it is not worth the risk of it sending a signal off world."

"I have to warn you about McKay," Sam started quietly as they neared her lab. She didn't know where to begin… "just consider yourself warned."

They entered the lab and found McKay sipping coffee and munching on a doughnut. There was a doughnut box on Sam's desk. She opened it to find a Twinkie… wrapper.

"So you finally decided to show," said McKay, slightly resentful when he saw that she had brought a man with her.

"Still haven't learnt to share with the rest of the class."

"Dr. McKay," he said offering his hand to Martouf.

"Martouf," he replied, shaking it.

"Pleased to meet you, _Mr_. Martouf?"

"Just Martouf," said Sam sharing a private look with Martouf as he stood close by her side, opposite McKay.

McKay inspected Martouf at length, "are you a scientist?"

"No."

When he didn't elaborate, McKay pressed further, "are you a tourist?"

Martouf took the insult in his stride, "precisely."

McKay raised his head, "then you won't mind sitting over there while we _physicists_ work," McKay pointed to the other side of the room.

Lantash was about to put McKay in his place when he noticed how flushed Sam's face was becoming and the flex of her jaw.

"It would be an honor," he said to McKay and took his time doing so.

Sam was more shocked than McKay at his acceptance. Martouf relaxed into a chair. He used the time to design with Lantash a few dozen corporal punishments for McKay. And a few capital ones for good measure. While he did so he watched them like a hatak.

•

At first Sam was very aware of Martouf's presence on the other side of the room. She often cast him glances and rolled her eyes about McKay's tactlessness. As time went on and her involvement grew she forgot about him.

Sam focussed deeply on working out a solution with McKay. The two spent a lot of energy heatedly arguing this aspect and that until they ended up working with their backs to each other. Martouf formed the opinion that McKay was only being difficult to monopolise Sam's attention. He soon got sick of sitting on the sidelines and insinuated himself between the two so he was behind Sam as she stood over her desk. Her shoulders tensed when she sensed him.

"May I be of assistance."

McKay jumped a mile in the air behind him, "Geez, don't sneak up like that! This is dangerous work. You could get somebody killed."

Sam lowered her head to hide her amusement. She was failing so she bailed out, "I think I'll just step out for a minute."

The second she was out of the room the two men were in each others faces.

"Do not think I can not see what you are doing."

"What's it to you?"

"Everything. _Desist_."

"Not in your life. You're not from around here, are you?"

"You do not have what she needs, or even what she wants," Lantash said with finality.

"Wanna bet?" Rodney challenged, setting his jaw.

Lantash looked him over with confidence, "I accept."

"What are you guys betting on?" Sam asked returning to the her desk.

They slinked away from each other, glaring like wolves.

"Requirements," they answered simultaneously and then shot ninja death stars at each other.

She summed it up, "we'll figure out the energy source requirements when we know how this works."

"Good point, Major Carter. One can't know what something needs until one knows what it _really_ is," McKay said pointedly, he'd clicked to the fact that Martouf was Jolinar's 'mate'.

Martouf glared darkly as McKay gloated, "I know exactly wh-" Martouf closed his mouth realizing his mistake too late. He was a seasoned Tok'Ra operative and yet this scientist suffering a Goa'uld complex was enough to get his blood boiling.

"You do?" Sam asked in surprise.

"Do share!" McKay said crossing his arms over his chest.

Lantash thought a bad word. Martouf closed his eyes. When he opened them he conceded.

"I do not know."

"Then why did you say that you did?" demanded McKay self righteously.

Sam was looking to Martouf with wide-eyed curiosity but when Martouf saw the smug look on McKay's face it was the final insult. His head bowed and when it came back up his eyes were radiating a golden light. Lantash was in control. His nostrils flared and he towered over McKay, looking down. It was time to make the annoying little physicist disappear.

And then McKay outwitted him. McKay stopped breathing. He stared up at Lantash and held his breath until he turned blue. Lantash frowned in disbelief when he noticed a faint smile. McKay was doing it on purpose. Lantash reached for his throat.

Sam cried out for Lantash to stop and pulled him off McKay. She pushed him out of the lab.

"Time-out!" she said, slamming the door in his face. She returned to McKay who was recovering in her desk chair and bowed to check his eyes. He looked so young in that moment. His eyes were cast down. She wondered if he was trying to look down her shirt, but dismissed the thought.

"Are you ok?" she asked sympathetically.

He nodded, and avoided her searching eyes, "embarrassed."

"He wasn't really going to do anything to hurt you."

"I know. It just brought back these memories. Threw me right back to high school…" he gazed deeply into her eyes as though asking her to understand, drawing her in. Then he broke the eye contact, "Never mind. It's stupid. It's not important."

"It's not stupid. He should never have threatened you. He overstepped."

"No, Sam, it was understandable. I had it coming. I can be a real pain in the ass" he said matter of factly.

"Give yourself some credit!" she said and immediately grimaced in confusion. "Did I just say that?" Then she looked at him accusingly, "Did you-"

He raised his eyebrows and tried not to give himself away but he looked too damned guilty.

Her eyes widened, "you faked it!" she whispered.

He leaned in close to her face, "are you going to hold it against me?"

She shoved him back into the chair sending him sliding across the lab. He rushed back and beat her to the door. He rested against it on his arm, and crossed one ankle over the other.

"Leaving so soon?" he asked sleazily.

She warned him, "McKay,"

"Call me Rod," he smiled suggestively.

"I'll be calling you Doe in a minute. As in D.O.A."

"But it will be so worth it," he said, almost losing balance as she twisted his wrist against his back and walked him to the side of the doorway.

"Later, Deathwish."

Sam closed the door behind her. She rested against it and chuckled.

On the other side McKay listened through the door and smiled.


	3. Imprints

"Are you seriously considering Rodney?" Janet frowned at Sam in disbelief.

"Rodney?" Sam laughed, "you know… he's funny. I mean he takes everything so seriously but he's still fun to be around. It's like… I can actually imagine being with him," she shook herself, "how weird is that!"

Janet stared with her mouth open, "Very!"

"And let's face it, he is a genius."

"Right. Sexy," said Janet dryly.

The look of distaste on her face made Sam break into laughter, "I meant, that we always have things to talk about."

"So the fact that you come from different planets doesn't give you much to talk about with Martouf?"

"Sometimes it doesn't. Do you think I'm leaning in the wrong direction?"

Janet held up her hands "I'm just debating."

"It's so complicated with Martouf and it's so straightforward with McKay. As much as he tries so be one, he's not really an asshole. He just has no idea how to communicate."

"Give the man an Oscar, he had me fooled!"

Sam chuckled, embarrassed to be defending Rodney McKay of all people.

"You think you can handle him?

"Absolutely!" Sam grinned.

"How about Martouf and Lantash?"

Sam closed her eyes briefly and sighed, "I can't handle him.

"It's just strange to think that I'm going through this whole dilemma neither of them is even aware of. I don't really know how Martouf feels. Does he treat other women the way he treats me? And McKay. Would he lose interest if I let him win?"

Janet wasn't buying it, "no, you don't! No cop outs. Martouf doesn't know any other women exist and Rodney _expects_ to win. You couldn't get rid of them if you tried. Don't make excuses to distance yourself. You have to make the choice."

Sam rubbed her forehead and accepted the responsibility.

She left to check on Martouf and found him back at his quarters. He glanced at her absently from where he was lying in his bunk with his hands behind his head, fuming.

"I am sorry for putting you in a bad position," Lantash said quietly.

She was amused, "but not for trying to strangle McKay?"

He looked away and responded with a cold "No."

"Neither am I, he can be such a - anyway," Sam decided not colour Martouf's cultural odyssey with bad language.

He looked unconvinced, "It flatters you - his behavior."

"Not even."

"If it didn't you wouldn't encourage him," he said emphatically.

"Are you jealous?"

"Should I be?" he answered rhetorically. She didn't respond so he changed the subject to McKay's suffocation act, "It was a trick."

"Yeah."

He hadn't expected her to know and he was glad to find out that she did. He sat up and asked, "are we 'good'?"

She smiled, "we're good."

"Good," he smiled back, "because I have something for you."

She cocked her head to one side, "you do?"

"Yes," he said mysteriously but did nothing else.

"Well, aren't you going to give it to me?" she asked cheekily.

"Samantha!" he scolded, "this is hardly the place."

She grinned and headed for the door, "then let's get out of here!"

He jumped up and followed.

"So where would the appropriate place be?"

"Hmmm…" he pretended the consider the question carefully, "If I remember correctly, we should go to an expensive restaurant," he watched her reaction.

She looked at him quizzically, "Yeah?"

"To quote Teal'c: indeed."

•

They settled at a private table in a corner of a warm, Mediterranean restaurant. The smell of wood fired delicacies wafted around them. They had become quite hungry after so many hours at work and made little conversation during their meal. Martouf seemed at home in the rustic setting, with the earthy colours of woven wall hangings around him and a platter of baklava between them. It reminded her that he was not born to the cold, dark tunnels, any more than a soldier to a trench. He also had a way of blending in wherever they went, and a way of always seeming to know more than he really did about things.

"What are you thinking?" he asked, noticing her pensiveness.

She shrugged the question off.

"Are you ready for it?" he asked.

Her faraway look disappeared, "are you sure this is the appropriate place?"

Martouf nodded and produced a box from his leather jacket pocket. He placed it before her. Sam hesitated to pick it up. She opened it. She was surprised to see a black hemispherical stone, a pendant on a suede cord. She held it up to the warm light from the wall lamp above the table. It was flawless, perfect.

Martouf got up and moved behind her, tying the soft cord around her neck, "wear it constantly."

She looked down at the plain stone. She gasped. When it touched her chest it had clouded over with a smoky charcoal colour, flattening slightly. She looked at it as though it was a beetle climbing up her skin. She didn't take her eyes off it. It changed no further.

"What does it do?" she asked, finally looking up at Martouf as he returned to his seat.

"They imprint on us," he undid a button on his cream shirt and parted the fabric to reveal a clear, angular stone resting against his skin.

"They change with us. It takes time."

"You weren't wearing that before."

"I haven't for a long time."

•

When Rodney found out that Major Carter had left with Martouf it put a serious dampener on his evening.

Rodney had been wired since he was informed he was going be working with her again. Sam had been his air force pin up girl since he first laid eyes on her. Since he'd arrive, however, it seemed the odds were against him. His excited energy had drained when he overheard airmen in the mess discussing Major Carter and another man, making bets on the things she might do with that man. _A vicious rumor_, he told himself, _she's just babysitting him_.

Rodney consoled himself with the fact that Major Carter and _that bastard_ weren't an item yet. He hoped he'd arrived in time. But he'd been away so long, _Who knows what's happened in her life since then._

If he was honest with himself, he didn't have a clue what to do next. Most of his other chances with women had ended in laughter; the picture of his cat in his wallet always served as an effective prophylactic. Rodney had never leant how to bounce back from embarrassment. Besides the picture of Nermal was staying!

All he could think of was to annihilate the competition. The guy was obviously an outsider; this time Rodney had the home advantage.

_When I get that idiot out of the way, I'll be free to sweep Major Carter off her feet_, with a triumphant smile of impending victory, Rodney settled into his comforter and dreams.

His watch read 0500.


	4. Enema

Major Carter was over 15 minutes late coming in to work. It was the hardest 15 minutes of Rodney's life. He didn't feel so good. He went to the infirmary and sat moping.

"Talk to me," Dr. Fraiser ordered. She wondered if Rodney had been one of those kids who spent more time in sick bay than in class.

"It's about Major Carter," he started reluctantly.

"You not getting along?"

"Why would you assume that?" he asked defensively.

She gave him a noncommittal shrug.

He gave in, "Not as much as I'd like, if you know what I mean."

She set it down for him, "If you want me convince her to go out with you: not going to happen."

"No, nothing like that," he grumbled, "I just want to know whether I even have a chance? At the moment it's 'crash and burn, Rodney'."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'm screwing up everything I touch. On top of it all, that alien is around her 24/7, taking up all her time."

"You've only been back here three days!"

"It stands."

"So what? You want _advice_?"

"I'm totally out of ideas."

Janet looked at him as though he'd requested an enema, "you're asking for _help_?"

"Yes, I am. I'm not used to this kind of thing. I know it's hard to believe but I've hit a brick wall."

She mumbled under her breath, "you are a brick wall."

"I heard that!"

"Oh, you're good," she said sarcastically. "How about, since Martouf's always around, you give her something to remind her of you?" she suggested, somehow managing to guide him out of the infirmary and disappear back inside.

_That could actually work. Ok_, thought Rodney,_ gifts, gifts, gifts. Flowers - won't last, chocolates - corny, ring - says "I'm needy", bracelet - annoying. Necklace… perfect_. He headed back to his … uh, _the_ lab, satisfied with his wonderful plan. As Rodney worked he wondered what kind of necklace to get. He remembered the emerald Orlin had made for Sam (he'd seen it at Area 51) and decided flatly against using her birth stone.

However, when Major Carter finally arrived he noticed the cord around the back of her neck and instantly suspected Martouf.

"This is ridiculous!" he said throwing up his hands. His notes, which had been in his hands, went fluttering through the air.

Sam shook her head at his outburst, not even gratifying him with a response.

Rodney decided it was time to take a risk.

"These radiographs," he said holding up a cream manila folder, "it took _forever_ to get the prints done manually. Unless you want to map this thing by hand, I need my laptop. I have to go back to my hotel. Are you coming?" he added casually.

She cast him a cynical glance but the lure of virtual mapping was too great. She agreed and they took his rental car.

Rodney cringed when they entered his hotel room, "I forgot what a mess it was in here." He threw his clothes and belongings from the floor onto the bed, tied the top blanket around everything and threw it all into the closet. He cleared the mess off a desk into a waste paper basket. He went to stand on the edge of the bathtub to open the square manhole in the bathroom ceiling and retrieve a sealed package. As he walked back out he opened the package carefully and pulled out his laptop, set it down on the desk and turned it on.

"Pull up a chair" he said.

Sam brought over a wicker armchair from the balcony window and sat down to his right. She asked to look at the radiographs which were on the other side of the desk. He passed them to her and leaned over her shoulder to see as she studied the pictures carefully. The sensation of his breath on her neck was distracting. She put the file back on the desk and sighed.

He sat down and looked at her, "what is it?"

She pointed to the computer, "I'm just annoyed that I left mine at the base."

"Don't worry we'll fix it," he said reassuringly.

With her reading out the measurements, he then began to map a version of the device from the inside out. It was a time consuming and exact process. They took turns at the different steps but after several hours they were exhausted. The basic map was complete.

"I have to get back to the base."

"You mean back to your charge."

"Among other things," she said non-commitally.

They both stood and moved around each other awkwardly.

"Ok, let me get this stuff out of sight," he said shuffling their papers into the folder.

"No, you stay," she said walking to the door, "I'll be fine."

He shoved the folder and computer under his mattress. "Don't be silly. I'm driving you back," he went to the dresser where he'd tossed his keys.

"Look, I'm not going to argue with you," she said and left.

He caught up with her outside, "Good, because I'm not in the mood."

After McKay parked inside the compound, he took one of the keys off his key ring and handed it to her.

She frowned skeptically, "what's this?"

"My second room key."

"_Doctor_-"

"In case something happens to me, you're gonna need our work."

"If something happens to you I won't need that to get to it," referring to her security clearance.

He took her hand and closed her fingers around the key, "I'm sure the hotel would prefer you to use this than shoot off the lock," he alluded to her dangerous methods.

She grinned and opened the car door, "hey, no publicity is bad publicity."

He snorted, "evidently."

"I'll see you later," she smiled.


	5. Amara

A.N.: I have removed the ending of the last chapter since was not meant to go there. plz go back to see where it ends now. R&R!

The next day Rodney was called back to the base to brief Hammond with their progress. While Sam went off on one of her technospiels Rodney contemplated how much everything sucked. He'd heard about Sam and Martouf's dinner at the restaurant. Apparently the airmen keeping the pool on the two were also keeping a surveillance team on them.

Hammond interrupted Sam, "do you have anything to say about that, Dr. McKay?"

Rodney waved his hand dismissively, not even looking up.

There was a silence.

"Are you sure?" Hammond checked.

"When am I not sure of anything?" Rodney snapped, trying to brood in peace.

Sam hesitantly returned to her monologue.

Rodney found himself playing with a flat metal container in his left pocket which he pulled out to remind himself what it was. Below the table, he flipped open the tin to see six small, red amara leaves which he had smuggled out of Area 51. Now _there_ was something one couldn't find this side of P3X-625. What better gift? He didn't really want to give them up but he still wanted to make an impressive gesture.

Of course Rodney realized that he couldn't just hand them to her. That would be like trying to give her old candy from his pocket. Straining to think of a way to make her accept and try the amara, he came to hover nervously over her in the lab

"What's up, Doc?" she asked impatiently.

He opened his mouth and closed it again. He moved away from her to where he worked and racked his brains for something decent to say. When he had it he moved back over and was met with a withering look. He got stage fright.

"Uh… I… um… you… I…"

"He, she, it, they," she finished, "what are you trying to say?"

He mumbled incoherently, so the only intelligible words were _have_ and _for you_. He put something in his mouth which she assumed was a mint. Then Rodney took her face in his hands and kissed her. It took her completely by surprise. She was about to protest, until she tasted something tart. It melted instantly.

He reluctantly pulled away so he could watch her. He wouldn't miss her reaction for anything. She gaped at him in disbelief at his spontaneity. She was about to say something but didn't. She touched her lips with her fingers instead. Her cheeks heated up as her pulse quickened.

"What was that? " she whispered. A euphoria took hold of her. The room receded.

"It's called _amara_. A plant with some interesting qualities," he said mysteriously.

"What is it doing to me?"

"It acts like a combination of epinephrine and endorphin. It's harmless, if slightly addictive," he added regaining some confidence.

"I didn't ask for this. I don't want it!" she raised her voice as she tried to recover some sort of composure.

"You don't understand..."

"That you've drugged me? You BASTARD!"

"It's not a drug. Its no worse than chocolate or coffee! In fact, I considered getting you chocolates but how corny would that be?"

"You were going to give me chocolates?" she asked incredulously. "…are you trying to... _court _me?"

"Oh, don't play dumb blonde."

Her expression passed through revulsion at the insult to surprise, "I didn't expect you to go all traditional on me."

He shot her a black look, "I'd go anything on you."

The euphoria was mellowing pleasantly. Sam couldn't hide her mirth, "didn't want to get corny, huh?"

He lightened up and smiled dryly, "I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I?"

She shook her head and grinned impishly, "nope."

His eyes darkened wickedly, "so, you want to do another hit together?"

That was the moment Sam decided it wasn't safe to be in her lab alone with McKay .

•

Sam's grey camo jacket slipped off the backrest of the chair. As Martouf retrieved it to hang up again, he heard a metal object fall out of it to the floor. He picket it up and opened it.

_Amara._

He wondered why Sam had such a thing. After all, she neither smoked nor drank.

The door suddenly opened and Martouf stood up. Apparently Sam hadn't chosen a good enough hideout: it was McKay.

"What are you doing in here?" he demanded surveying the spacious lab where most of the base's scientists worked. Several scientists looked quizzically at McKay until they realized he wasn't addressing them.

McKay looked at the tin Martouf was holding in one hand and at Sam's jacket in the other and gave him an accusatory smirk. Martouf put the jacket back onto the chair and slipped the tin into one of its pockets.

Lantash quickly realized, _McKay knows about the amara. _He mirrored McKay's smirk.

Sensing trouble, Sam walked over from her conversation with one of the scientists, "break it up boys, it's lunch time."

They grunted and obediently followed her to the mess, trailing behind like naughty children just waiting for the opportunity to knock each others teeth out.

In the mess hall Lantash offered to carry the large food tray. Before Sam could protest McKay maneuvered her ahead to a table. This left Lantash at a disadvantage. However, he utilized the time McKay was focussed Sam. Of course, by the time he got to the table McKay had taken the chair next to her. Lantash sat opposite her and organized the food and drinks on the table. Sam thanked him and dug into her meal. McKay scrutinized his. None of the food displayed in the bain-maries had been immediately recognizable. Once McKay started to eat though, it didn't seem like he would ever come up for air. Lantash relaxed into his chair and sipped a strong coffee.

"What is this? It tastes funny…" Rodney asked scrunching up his face until he figured it out. "Sh!" he said dropping his spoon. He ran out of the mess. "Oh, that little… " he growled as he approached the infirmary. Dr Fraiser was standing inside looking over a chart beside a trolley of perfectly organized, shining, metal equipment.

"I've been poisoned! That alien Martouf poisoned me!" he cried as he descended upon her. She hung the chart on the trolley and walked him over to an empty bed.

"Ok, what have you drunk?"

"It was in the food."

"What was?"

"Tiny amount… just a hint… unmistakable…lemon zest. That bastard!" he dissolved into nasty mumblings.

"Have you thrown up?"

"I was this close," he held up two fingers and they were pressed together, "however, Sam was there and I didn't want to subject her to that image of me. Especially since this is probably the last anyone will ever see of me."

"Don't write all your epitaphs at once, Dr. McKay. I think you can be saved."

"You _think_?"

"Well, try not to do - no, in your case - _say_ anything stupid within the next half hour and you may survive my infirmary."

•

Back at the mess Sam was looking more and more at the doorway Rodney had run out. She was worried.

"Do you think he's ok?"

"Of course. A solution must have naturally occurred to him since he stopped dwelling on the problem."

Lantash gloated, _Perhaps the citric solution we put into his food?_

"Must have," she said.

•

Meanwhile in the infirmary...

"I couldn't sleep last night. It's all so ridiculous. Why would she want him?"

While Dr. Fraiser considered the many reasons, she drifted into a little daydream about Martouf.

"Are you listening?" Rodney cut in snapping her out of it.

"Of course," she said, fixing up her hair and straightening her white coat, "you were saying?"

"I was saying that I can't stand it anymore."

Dr. Frasier handed him a white, plastic bottle of diazepam tablets from her coat pocket and absently began to hum a cheerful tune as she filled out a routine order for medical supplies.

Rodney looked at the tiny bottle like a gift from heaven. He grinned maniacally.

"I could kiss you..."

Her hand snapped up like a stop sign, "don't!"

He jumped off the bed, "you're an angel."

"Take two, half an hour before bed."

"This is exactly what I needed," she heard him say as his footsteps disappeared down the corridor.

Something in his tone set off a warning signal in Janet's psycho detector. But this was Rodney. Realizing that he was up there with the clinical narcissists in the psych ward wasn't much of an insight.

•

Rodney headed back to the mess hall, where Sam and Lantash had almost finished their meals, and acted as though nothing had happened.

"You ok?" asked Sam.

"Sure, false alarm."

Lantash raised an eyebrow.

"I see my coffee is cold. I'll get refills," he deftly swept their mugs away on a tray and had them filled. When they glanced over at him he was adding the sugars at the condiment counter, stirring thoroughly.

Back at the table, Rodney watched intently as Lantash lifted his mug. While he drank, Lantash seemed to sense something was wrong but not what. What Rodney had done was way too obvious to be plausible.

Rodney found it interesting and immensely satisfying to watch Lantash's decline from highly alert to barely awake. He knew Lantash would never concede to the weakness called 'exhaustion' in his presence so Rodney reluctantly sent himself on an errand. When he returned Lantash was gone and Sam was all his once again. Problem was, that once he had her he couldn't figure out what to do with her.

•

Sam beamed when she caught sight of Lantash wandering drowsily out of his quarters. He perked up when he saw her.

"Good evening," he said, slipping his arm around her waist and pulling her along with him.

Sam allowed herself to be guided easily but inside she struggled to be unaffected by the intimacy.

"Did you rest well?" she asked.

Martouf gave her a warm and knowing look when her words came out like small talk, "Yes, remarkably. Do you wish to talk about the weather now?" he asked glibly.

She restrained the urge to hit him, "I thought you'd never ask!"

"We must leave this place."

"_We_ or you and you? Never mind," she said quickly, "There's nothing for me to take care of here. You ok? You look a little... hot under the collar."

He gave her a strange look of incomprehension, but continued "Lantash needs water."

"Where's the fire?" she smirked.

"Can you not see it is in my head?" he retorted, but couldn't hide a smile.

"You want a glass of water?"

"More than a glass. Is there anywhere near the SGC with a pool?"

"We could go up to hydrotherapy," she suggested.

Martouf looked dubious. He'd seen the hydrotherapy pool before. It wasn't up to Tok'Ra standards.

"I guess not. I have a much better idea anyway."

Sam took Martouf's hand and lead him on a mystery tour through the base until they came to a dark, narrow corridor. At the end was a ladder leading up into darkness. She went up first.

Martouf watched her ascend. There was a loud groaning of metal and bright light suddenly radiated around her. It shone through her hair as she looked down on him, her face concealed in shadow, "You coming?"

Martouf followed and found himself surrounded by trees on a slope of the mountain. Sam guided him on a trek along what she called a 'secret path'. Along the way his temper cooled as he became more and more curious about where she was taking him. Then he noticed moisture on his skin and saw mist seeping through the trees ahead. Sam's pace picked up, her grip tightening on his hand.

Not far ahead, the path disappeared down a steep slope into a steamy spring. They weaved between saplings and bushes around the rim of the slope, gradually descending to the waters edge where thick moss carpeted the bed of rocks underfoot.

"This is a beautiful secret," Martouf said undoing his army boots as Sam twisted a twig with her fingers. "Are you not going to enjoy it with me?" he stepped out of his boots, took off his shirt and hung it over a branch.

"You won't mind if I watch you?" she wasn't really asking.

Martouf's froze. His eyes began to darken, "you may wash anything you want."

Sam blinked. Martouf moved up and dipped his head to kiss her.

"Watch," she said before his lips touched hers.

He pulled back, "what?"

"Watch. Not wash," she said quietly.

He swallowed and nodded, then moved away.

"It is alright," he said, "I know you want to keep things uncomplicated."

"I wish I could say I'm ready to be serious, but with the way my life is at the moment I don't see any way that would work."

"Are you open to discussing the possibilities?" he asked as he hung his jeans on another branch and entered the water.

"I'm sorry, Martouf, I don't think I can."

He turned away and drifted to the deeper water where he treaded casting his eyes up to the leaf dappled twilight sky. He seemed transformed.

Sam watched him curiously.

"You are wondering why I wanted to swim so much. Symbiotes become agitated when we are away from water for some time. Submersion is a comfort relating back to infancy. It helps to balance us. I feel a strong need for it; there is something strange in our system."

As Martouf drifted, Sam reached up to touch the pendant he had given her. It felt different. She could only just make out purple wisps flowing inside the stone, like ink in water, and like the night into the deep spring.


	6. With Genius

The next morning Sam entered her lab and saw that Rodney was pretty much as he always was, working at Sam's desk, as though the place belonged to him.

"Hey," she said, mentally bracing herself for comments about her constant lateness and for more of his advances.

"Hey," he said casually, unmoved by her arrival.

She stood a little way inside expecting him to turn around and talk to her. When she realized he wasn't going to, she felt silly.

"So..." she said, sitting down at the desk for a better view of his writing.

He continued scribbling away, oblivious. She pretended to pay attention to what he was doing but found herself watching his expression, which gave nothing away.

"So, _Rodney_..." she began again, using his given name for the first time, but it didn't seem like he even noticed.

Finally, he responded, but without looking up, "Correct. Good work," facetiously.

She sat back, picked up a notepad he'd been using and flipped through it just to be doing something.

"How was your night?" she asked interestedly.

"Uneventful."

Sam fiddled with his Dr. Who pen for a while. She couldn't concentrate and, quite frankly, couldn't be bothered trying. She knew Rodney would take care of the work, while she let her mind wander.

After a while, he said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah," she answered, a little too quickly.

He closed the book he'd been scanning. He waited a beat.

"Are you trying to make me bite?"

She figured she'd misheard, "excuse me?"

He turned to her and looked her in the eyes. He repeated slowly, deliberately, "are you trying to make me bite?"

She didn't know how to safely respond to that, but she didn't withdraw.

"'Cause I will," he warned, and then looked at her neck with interest. "How did you get that scratch?"

She reached up but failed to find it.

He moved her hand away, loosely holding it on the desk. "This," he said, slowly tracing a line down from her jaw to the collar of her shirt with his other hand.

She couldn't break away from his intense blue eyes, "I don't know," she said quietly.

"You should be more careful."

"Things happen."

"Don't they just."

The lab door opened and Rodney glanced up. He didn't look impressed to see Martouf entering the lab without waiting for his approval.

"Typical," he said, going back to what he'd been doing at Sam's desk.

Sam went out into the hallway with Martouf to speak in private. Closing the door behind her, she said, "Hi, what are you doing here? Everything okay?"

"Everything is fine. I wanted to see how things are progressing."

"There are occasional moments of brilliance, but it's mostly mind numbing," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose, as though she'd been working. "How did you get here?"

He pulled a wallet out of his pocket. There were only two things in it, the credit card he'd been given and…

"You got a drivers license? That's great!"

Sam tried to focus on Martouf (and ignore Rodney bitching in the background, "because the roads aren't dangerous enough").

"The image is… regrettable."

Sam looked closely at it, imprinting the image into her memory, "it's the most important part of the experience."

"What a depressing thought," he said. As he put it away, he laughed quietly, "the airman who instructed me informed me that I could use the license as a 'proof of age'. So, I asked him how many places on Earth are restricted to 100+. Needless to say, we decided to give me an 'age-lift'."

Martouf's sensitive hearing picked up sneaky footsteps behind the lab door, footsteps which could only belong to McKay. It wasn't long before a muffled one man struggle ensued as McKay apparently tripped over his own feet and impacted the inside of the door with a dull thud. Silence fell.

Sam and Martouf watched the door in suspense. When it was clear that McKay's ludicrous performance was complete, Martouf spoke almost inaudibly to Sam.

"Let us steal the car, run away!"

"They'd find us."

"Eventually. Maybe. However by then…" he trailed off provocatively, straightening her pendant with one finger. He eyed it carefully.

There was a quiet tap of glass against the door and Martouf closed his eyes, almost growling.

"We will continue this later, Samantha," he said, stroking her cheek. He left without a second glance.

As Sam drifted back into the lab, Rodney pretended to be drinking from the dry glass in his hand.

"_Samantha_," Rodney mocked, brushing himself down.

"Could you be any more jealous?" she shot.

"I don't think so."

"Let's get this job over with _now_."

"Impatient to get back to alien head?"

"Wow, you really are a genius," she walked up and poked him hard in his 'I'm With Genius' shirt. He grabbed her wrist and walked her further into the room until the small of her back touched the desk.

"Enough of one to know that you don't really want him."

She hissed in his ear, "and you have time between satisfying yourself to know what anyone else wants?"

He breathed in her scent and whispered, "I don't need to know what anyone else wants, when I know what _you_ want."

She leaned back to look into his eyes. Her own became perilously dark, "you don't have a clue. That's the thing with you, you know _so much_ and yet nothing that matters!"

He was stung and hit back, "You have no intention of giving him anything more than your body."

She slapped him hard across the face with her free hand, "I don't even intend to give you my time."

Rodney smirked and released her. He simply said, "Then why are you here with me?"

Sam didn't say anything.

"You could have gone a moment ago."

She stared into his eyes.

"You've had so many chances," he said. He took hold of her waist, "but you're still here."

She pressed her hands against his chest, resisting the pull of his hands on her waist. He pressed her harder into the desk, feeling her chest expand against his with every quick breath. Then she broke eye contact to look down at his mouth.

He reined in his pride. If she was waiting for him to make the next move, he wasn't going to. If he did, later on she could say he'd been deluding himself. That he'd forced her. He needed to know he wasn't imagining that she wanted him like he wanted her. Most of all, he needed _her_ to know it.

She looked back to his eyes and exhaled. Her hands snaked up around his neck, and she tilted her head. As she brought her mouth against his, she closed her eyes and kissed him languidly. She softly pulled his bottom lip between hers for a moment, then opened her mouth and ran her tongue along his lips tickling the corner. She caressed his lips again and slowly ended the kiss. She dipped her head forward a little and opened her eyes to look up at him, studying his expression.

His mouth was still open. His facade had fallen away, forgotten. A wide eyed, deeply effected man was looking back at her. She was happy to see the real Rodney for the very first time. He closed his mouth and swallowed.

"Breathe, Rodney," she smiled.

He caught his breath with a gasp. His mind kicked into gear, and he ran his hand up her back and embraced her tight enough to surprise her a little. When he moved back, it was only enough to devour her mouth in a passionate French kiss. He didn't stop as he swept his left hand over the desk top, sending everything flying. She grasped his arms as he lifted her onto the desk. He stood between her legs and kissed her neck, as he ran his fingers through her hair, his other hand around her ribs.

Suddenly, the only thing he hadn't knocked off the desk, the phone, rang loudly next to her making them both jump out of their skin.

"Don't answer it!" he said quickly.

She picked up the receiver in her left hand anyway, "Carter!"

He bowed his head in annoyance, "I _said..._" he mouthed silently.

She hung up, "I gotta go!" she pushed him back to get off the desk.

"I'm really surprised," he said sardonically as she rushed out the door. A moment later, he grinned giddily. "She'll be back."

Rodney searched through the things on the floor and found the 'Unicrypter' under some papers. When he touched it, part of the surface shifted under his thumb and then it slipped out of his hand. It rolled until it hit the wall. He looked at it suspiciously. The surface had not moved before. He looked closer and noticed that certain lines of the surface engravings had become deeper. The ball looked like a tight spiral. He gingerly scooped up the device and placed it carefully onto the desk, on the side which looked to be its base. As the Unicrypter settled, part of the spiral twisted down, slightly opening two entwined curved spikes on the top. Rodney realized that it was, in fact, not a sphere but two interlocking spirals. He gently twisted them apart until they came free of each other and then held them under a lit magnifying glass.


	7. Burns

Vacillating between Martouf and Rodney was like being trapped between two fires. At first, Sam had been hot and excited, now she was overwhelmed by their eagerness. Before they came along, she was certain she didn't want a real relationship. She'd always managed to fit flirting into her busy schedule, but they were playing for keeps. Flyboys would have known better.

Sam was grateful for the escape as she hurried to the control room. Something was going on. She'd heard the excitement in Turner's voice over the phone. As she sprinted up the stairs, she saw General Hammond. He smiled at her as she strode over to him.

"Good work, Major Carter!"

Sam looked at the monitors now displaying their normal interface texts, "I didn't do this, Sir."

"I'm sure you had a big part in it," he said, "Turner, inform the team leaders that we're back in business," he said heading to his office.

Sam reluctantly returned to her lab. A crowd of excited technicians was huddling outside her door, wanting to know how Rodney had decrypted everything. She pushed through them and tried to open her door. It was locked.

She banged on the door with her fist, "MCKAY!"

He yelled from the other side, "IS THAT YOU, SAM?"

"YES."

"I WON'T LET YOU IN UNTIL THE OTHERS ARE GONE. "

Sam shushed everyone until there was complete silence.

"Ok, they're gone," she said. Sam felt the anticipation of the technicians as they depended on her to get to Rodney. There was silence on both sides of the door.

Eventually he said, "Do I look like an idiot?"

"You can't keep me locked out of my own lab!" she said, gesturing for everyone to scramble against the walls on either side of the door. After another silence the door clicked. Sam nodded to the closest technician, "keep him busy. Take him for a walk."

McKay opened the door slowly and stuck his head out to check the hallway. He screamed when he saw them all and slammed it shut again, but Sam had wedged her boot into the doorway. She pushed in and headed over to her desk. The Unicrypter spirals, which were now lying under a camera, were already partly disassembled.

"I knew you wouldn't wait for me," she said, as he was practically carried out of the lab by the crowd. She could hear them hitting Rodney with a barrage of questions as they moved further and further away:

"How did you figure it out?"

"After I separated the interlocking halves, the microcircuitry-"

"How did you know it was safe to do that?"

"Will you let me finish?"

"Do you know how to program it?"

"If you'll just give me a moment to answer the first-"

"Are you sure the encrypting signal has been completely disabled?"

That was the last straw.

Sam smiled as Rodney exploded at the technicians, ripping them to shreds, until they were out of earshot.

Sam picked up the phone and had Martouf called to the lab. By the time he got there, she was deep into the workings of the device.

"You gotta check this out, Martouf. It's beautiful. The design, the craftsmanship, everything…"

Sam used a fine pair of tweezers to hold one of the most impressive fragments up to the camera lens. The circuitry was woven from gold filaments.

"Impressive," he said. He leafed through notes strewn about the lab and extracted a paper which caught his eye. "'Summary: Possible Cultural Links of P3X-809' by Dr. Jackson, based on his assessment of the design. May I have a copy of this? "

She went over to see what he had, "sure, I don't think Daniel would mind. So, you really are interested in other cultures."

"No, I only came here for you," he teased.

"I think you _did_," she smirked.

Martouf wanted to reach out and touch her. He hesitated, wondering if she would stop him again, but decided to do it anyway. Putting the paper back, he put his hands on her shoulders and brought his mouth to her parted lips, bestowing them with passionate caresses. She grasped him with an urgency he had not been expecting.

He felt a surge of excitement as he let his eyes wander over her flushed face and then down, "Of course, I-"

Martouf stopped in shocked disbelief. His face fell as he released her. He walked out. When she followed him as though he might be leading her somewhere, he turned on her.

"Leave me," he felt colder than ice.

It seemed to take Sam a moment to comprehend his words, "hey, you can't just use me one minute and reject me the next!"

"Like you have done?" he said with condemnation.

Sam looked dumbfounded.

He lifted his head high, "Yes, I know you have betrayed me."

"What are you talking about?" she looked down to see if Rodney had left any marks on her skin but saw none.

Her action incensed him.

"He _has_ left his mark. You should have taken it off before he touched you. After all, it is a Tauri custom to take off ones wedding ring before having an affair."

Sam looked down again. This time she saw the veins of unhealthy yellow that lined the surface of the now sharp stone pendant. Even Sam must have been able to tell that was what guilt looked like.

"You put this thing on me to see if I would cheat on you?" she said, ripping it off her neck. She threw it at him and it fell to the floor. Martouf was bemused when it didn't break.

"No, but perhaps I should have thought of that."

She scoffed, "Don't even make this about me. I know you and Rodney hate each other a lot more than either of you cares about me."

"That is not true. I will not be a fool for a woman who can not decide what she wants."

Sam fumed, "You know what I want? I want a man who will be there for me when I need him. Where are you going to be? I haven't got a clue! And don't think I've forgotten what that was like for Jolinar."

Martouf's mouth fell open. She'd cut him deep, but he still had the presence of mind to leave before doing something regrettable. He soon found himself pacing through an unfamiliar area. There was a commotion nearby. He sought out the source, knowing that McKay had a habit of putting himself at the centre of everything. He knew it was wrong, but believing his holiday with Samantha already destroyed beyond repair, Lantash was out for blood.

Martouf entered the large lab the noises were coming from. He saw a group of technicians surrounding a very strained looking Rodney. When Rodney noticed him, Martouf lit a nearby Bunsen burner. Then he held up the tin he had swiped from Sam for Rodney to see. Rodney recognised it, frowned, and pushed his way out of the group.

Martouf flipped the tin open and burnt the amara over the burner's blue flame.

Rodney visibly deflated. He could have really used that the way things were going.

Martouf's eyes shone with Lantash's golden light. He stalked up to Rodney like quicksilver and rammed him into a wall. Martouf raised his fist.

Rodney ducked as it came at his face. He escaped Lantash's grip to end up on the floor without a second to think. He rolled under a bench for cover. As Rodney tried to crawl away, he found himself being dragged into the open by his foot.

Lantash dropped it and aimed a kick into Rodney's stomach. Rodney tensed his stomach muscles for the impact and desperately kicked out Lantash's supporting leg. Lantash fell next to him. Lantash's heel came down on Rodney's chest. Rodney grimaced, pushed it off and scrambled up before Lantash could.

As Lantash rose, Rodney grabbed the closest thing at hand, a stack of papers and threw them in his face. Lantash jumped back from the papers in surprise, then laughed at Rodney's choice of weapon. Then he felt a sharp sting on his face and a trickle of blood ran down his cheek from a paper cut. He glowered and came at Rodney with another punch. Rodney raised a large stapler in front of his own face. It injected Lantash's knuckled on impact.

Lantash looked at his hand to see what was embedded there. Rodney used that moment to take a paperweight to Lantash's head. It wasn't hard enough to knock him out, but the feeling was what counted.

Lantash stumbled a little then swung his arm out to catch hold of the front of Rodney's shirt. Rodney pumped some more staples into that hand and kicked Lantash in the shin. Lantash pulled Rodney down with him and finally connected a fist to Rodney's face with satisfaction. Due to the kick in his shin, Lantash's blow hit Rodney under the chin. Rodney's head snapped back and he collapsed backwards, coming free of Lantash's wounded grasp.

Rodney pulled a staple out of his neck. He yanked himself up as Lantash took a letter opener to the staples in Martouf's hand. Rodney looked at the opener and at Lantash and edged out of the lab into an adjoining one. The sound of slow footsteps behind him sent a chill up his spine.

Lantash was standing in the doorway. A streak of light glinted off the letter knife.

Rodney backed up. He was afraid, and that made him angry. He picked up a large test tube from a bench next to him. Lantash looked at the tube quizzically. Rodney smashed it on the edge of the bench. He waved the broken glass at Lantash threateningly.

"You have been watching too many cowboy movies," Lantash ridiculed.

However, Rodney's other hand had found an acid-green solution. He threw it at Lantash. Lantash shielded his face with his arm. His arm began to slowly burn.

"Well, you haven't been watching enough Alien movies," said Rodney.

Lantash saw a foil tube on the bench and grabbed it. He squeezed it until it's cap flew across the room. He easily deflected Rodney's makeshift-beer-bottle test tube and flattened Rodney onto the floor. Then he dropped the foil tube and stepped on it so its clear, gummy liquid flowed out. He pressed Rodney's face into it. From the floor, Rodney could read the tube.

_SUPERGLUE_

Rodney struggled ineffectually against Lantash's pressure on his head. But, it was too late. The glue had set. Lantash released him. The only thing Rodney could reach was a nearby swivel chair. He rolled it close to him. Lantash gave him a patronising look and bent down to pick up the broken test tube Rodney hadn't seen behind his head.

Rodney grabbed the gas release peddle on the swivel chair. The chair shot up, hitting Lantash in the face.

Lantash sent the chair flying across the room and looked down on Rodney, who was now completely helpless. He glanced over all the equipment at his disposal and held up a nice ceramic Petri dish. Examining it at his leisure, absently resting his other hand on the edge of the bench, his fingers hung down into the opening of a drawer. Rodney swung his leg up and kicked the drawer shut.

At Lantash's cry, Dr. Fraiser burst into the lab.

That was when Lantash noticed there were scientists in the room. One of them was holding a phone receiver. They looked ragged but too scared to get close enough to separate the two men.

"Busted!" mouthed Rodney.

Lantash managed to stand on Rodney's hand, but Janet pulled him aside to look at his injuries and then made him go to the infirmary. She knelt down to talk to Rodney.

"What are you doing down there?" she asked, as though he was a child.

"Oh, I was just wondering what it would be like to have my FACE super-glued to the FLOOR."

Janet tried to keep a straight face, "Hmm. Now that you know, are you ready to be unstuck?"

"No, I'd love to spend the rest of my life down here, while that thing roams Earth freely."

"You did quite a bit of damage, you know. I would have thought Lantash to be stronger than you," Janet said, as though she was impressed.

"I play dirty," he said, smiling a little… on one side of his face anyway,

_Never underestimate the power of flattery_, thought Janet.


	8. Safe

Sam skidded through the doorway to the infirmary, "what happened?" She rushed over to Martouf lying on a bed with his eyes closed.

"Martouf?" She took his hand and pressed two fingers to his neck.

His eyes opened, "I may die of a broken heart, but not a broken nose."

Sam winced at the black bruise across this nose and the wide burn covering the underside of his arm. She carefully put down his hand when she noticed the puncture wounds all over it.

"Lantash is healing you?"

When he nodded, she asked what had happened.

"Nothing."

"It must have been a whole lot of nothing," she said, eyeing the white scar on his cheek.

"While I have been waiting for my wounds to heal, I have been considering a few things. I want to tell you the most important." His voice was calm, his eyes sincere, "Though I do not know where you will be at any given time, when you are near me, I do not care. I want you despite everything the universe might throw at us."

Her heart beat wildly, "I wish I could be that confident," she said quietly, her eyes cast down, "maybe I wouldn't be so lonely."

"When we met, you said you feel how Jolinar felt for me. Do you remember?" His eyes reddened, "If you don't care for me then that would be enough of a blow. But what does that say about the feelings she had…" he swallowed, "or didn't have." He turned his face away.

Sam's eyes began to sting. She realised it was time to be honest with both Martouf and herself. She turned his face back with her hand, and traced the scar with a fingertip. Then she looked into his eyes, "I want you so much. I want to be yours. When I'm around you, it's…almost too much to bear. I find myself unable to…act on it."

"They why?" he asked stroking her fringe away from her eyes, "why are you getting close to _him_?"

"Because I'm not afraid to." The confession lifted a great weight off her shoulders.

Martouf seemed to understand, "You can live with him. You can know that he will be there with you everyday. His life is steady. Safe.

"With me, nothing is certain. That is the life I have chosen: to be Tok'Ra. Until now, I thought that was very close to the life you have chosen."

"It is! That's not why I'm afraid."

He couldn't seem to think of any other reason for her to be afraid, "why then?"

"I'd lose myself. I'd be lost in you and I wouldn't care. Nothing else would matter. Falling in love with you is…terrifying." She closed her eyes, hiding her tears in her lashes and took a shaky breath. She wiped her eyes and put the pendant, now in its original form, into his hand, "was this supposed to mean we were 'mated'?"

He shook his head in negation, "it was a symbol and a proof of my sincerity. The stones show state of mind." He showed her his. "You see the red in mine? That is pain. But here, a touch of white. Hope. When yours did not break, I knew that deep down you still had love for me."

Sam understood, "Otherwise it would have shattered."

"So, will you be mine, Samantha?" he asked holding out his open hand. The black pendant lay in his palm.

She placed her hand over his, stroking his wrist with her thumb. With a strong grip on her hand, he pulled her half way over him and combed his fingers through her hair. There was a persuasiveness and a wildness in the kiss he gave her. She deepened it, grasping his shoulder.

When their lips parted and she straightened up, he lifted her hand from his to reveal the stone's transformation. Its form was like a passion flower, or star, of magenta. Sam traced its shape with her fingers and lifted it by its strap to tie around her neck. When she looked to him, she didn't miss the subtle flicker of remorse which crossed his face.

"Tell me," she commanded confidently to hide the fear that she had disappointed him again.

Martouf smiled sadly, "I am sorry to tell you this now, but I can not keep it from you any longer. The council has sent for me. Knowing what I do now, I would have tried to stay longer, but it is too late. I can not contact them at this point. They will send someone to get me when the time comes for me to go. That time is not far away, Samantha."

Though there was relief that it was not about something being wrong with her, she was very disappointed that he would be leaving so soon. Her face dropped into her hands and she sighed, whispering, "I knew this was a mistake."

He gently pulled her hands away from her face, "we both knew I would have to go eventually."

"Yes, we did," she said bitterly, sitting up straight.

"It doesn't make this a mistake. Stop trying to be in control."

"I have to. You won't be here. How are we going to go on like this?"

"We will take it day by day. We will find ways to see each other. And, when we do, we will not waste the time we have together. Starting now."

She tilted her head to one side and considered that. The more she thought about it the more she wanted to take on that challenge, to overcome their circumstances and the distance soon to be put between them.

She bit her lip, playfully, "and _how_ will we not waste that time?"

Lantash came forward, "I have a few ideas about that already."

•

Rodney winced and hissed at Janet as she treated his face.

"I could have used a spatula to get you off that floor."

"I could use one on you right now," he growled, giving her a death stare.

Janet made it hurt a tiny bit more than necessary, "I don't know why you put yourself through this."

"Which part of this would be my fault, exactly?"

Janet paused then stated, "All of it! You chose to go after someone who clearly wasn't interested-"

He interrupted, "no, who was clearly hiding her attraction to me!"

"Maybe."

"Definitely."

"Even if she was interested, you went about it entirely the wrong way."

"You don't have a clue what you're talking about. She responded to me _like a dream_."

"How do you know it wasn't another dream?"

"Why are you being so…" he stopped. Then he smiled crookedly, "You have a thing for me."

"Not in your life, or any other state of existence."

"Hey, don't fight it. It's only natural."

Janet threw down the soaked cotton ball she'd been using on his face and ordered the nearest nurse to tend to him.

"You can't run from your feelings," he called after her.

"But I can run away from you," she called back over her shoulder.

•

"I don't know what your problem is, it's not like you have to share the same planet. Not for much longer anyway," said Sam.

"He's leaving?" Rodney's energy seemed to pick up, "I should see him off. It's the least I can do, after all this trouble, to give him a decent farewell."

"No offense, but I don't think he'd mind if you didn't show up."

Rodney waved it off, "it's in the spirit of future relations. Between our peoples," he added quickly.

Rodney accompanied Sam to Martouf's quarters. Lantash tensed when he saw them together in the corridor. Sam fiddled with a button on her blue shirt; her expression was apologetic.

Lantash cocked his head to the side and back slightly as Rodney approached him with confidence.

"Look, I know that we haven't gotten along so well since…well, since we met. I'd just like to say, no hard feelings, bygones, you know; etcetera, etcetera, blah, blah, blah." He tentatively clapped Lantash on the shoulder and nodded.

Sam must have caught a warning sign because she pushed in between them and asked if Lantash wanted anything to take back with him.

"I have more than enough already," he said, swinging up his bag of gifts so the strap came to rest on his shoulder flap.

"I guess you're ready to go then," Sam let her gaze linger on his face, as his lingered on hers.

Rodney remained oddly silent as he watched them both.

The three made their way without hurry, Martouf on Sam's left and Rodney on her right, like stoic bodyguards. They reached the gate room where the event horizon was already established and looked up to the control room window as Davis confirmed the Tok'ra's IDC.

A woman appeared from the event horizon. It was Anise.

Rodney's mouth dropped open. His wide blue eyes stared at every inch of her. Her golden hair, big brown eyes, pouty lips, cat suit…

"Holy Seven of Nine!" he gasped. "Is she…"

"Real?" suggested Sam.

"Available?" he asked.

Sam and Martouf shared astonished looks. Martouf smiled, "Please! Take her off our hands."

Rodney wiped his palms on his pants, "Preparing to engage," he muttered and made his way up to the foot of the gate ramp, entranced.

Anise glided down and gave him a dismissive look when she stopped before him. Although she seemed to take his reaction for granted, there was a hint of a smile. Rodney introduced himself, offering his hand. She held it briefly as she stepped off the ramp.

Anise walked up to Martouf, "do you have anything for me?"

He wearily took Daniel's paper from the lab out of his bag and handed it to her. She scanned through it carefully.

"This is acceptable," she stated. She turned her eyes to see why Rodney was so close to her side. He was either reading over her shoulder or smelling her hair.

He lifted his chin, "I solved that device."

Anise turned to him, "you did?"

"My findings aren't in that report."

"No, they are not," she said with a raised eyebrow.

"I haven't put them into writing yet."

Anise glanced at Martouf and then drifted from him and Sam, easily luring Rodney away so she could question and size him up.

Sam watched the two, and wrapped her arms around herself. She felt strange without Rodney's attention focused on her. She snapped out of it when she noticed Lantash was talking.

"…They are perfectly matched," he said with an evil glint in his eye. Then he whispered conspiratorially, "Before I arrived here, I had to fight her tooth and nail to be the one to come," he held up his hand to show her the broken nail.

Anise heard what he said and gave him a fatal glare.

Sam and Martouf looked at Rodney whose mouth had fallen open again when he'd stopped talking about his accomplishments to ogle more. When Anise returned her focus to him, his started up again, despite losing his original train of thought.

"Why does he talk so much?" asked Martouf.

"He's afraid to ask her what he really wants to know."

"That's idiotic," said Lantash.

"It's not at all effective, but it does keep the ball in his court as long as possible."

The gate began to spin as the Tok'ra's new coordinates locked on.

Sam felt Martouf's hand slide up her back and shivered slightly. She'd known this time would come – time to say goodbye. She held her breath, waiting to see what he would say, but she couldn't wait long enough. She pulled him into a tight embrace.

"I'll miss you more than ever."

"I will find a way to return."

As they parted, Sam saw Rodney try to embrace Anise and get slapped across the face.

"Maybe I could come to visit sometime," Sam suggested to Lantash.

Sam suspected Rodney had asked the same thing, as Anise tried to pull her hand from his grasp.

"I would love that. _We_ would love that," Lantash slipped his hand into her over-shirt between the fastened buttons. He held the pendant in his fist and kissed her mouth as though it held a sweet elixir.

He released her and stood tall, letting the stone fall to rest lightly against her chest.

"We love you," he said.

"We love you too. I mean. I love you. And Jolinar loved you more than I can put into words."

His face glowed with happiness, "thank you for telling us that."

As he moved away, Sam grabbed his arm and told him urgently, "I've found myself. I just want you to know that."

As he slowly moved out of her grasp, he looked into her eyes affectionately and nodded.

Anise joined him on the ramp. All the goodbyes and promises to find a way back were over too soon. The Tok'ras were gone.

•

Late that night Sam was lying in bed, restless. She found herself spinning Rodney's key between her fingers under the warm light from her bedside lamp. Hours passed without sleep.

When Sam got into work, she looked for him in vain and ended up in the control room.

"Major Carter, I was just about to call you," said Turner from her station.

Sam frowned quizzically, "yeah?"

"Dr. McKay missed his flight to McCarran at 0800 this morning. I was wondering whether I should contact his hotel."

"Don't bother, I'll go see what's happened."

Sam knocked and then banged on Rodney's hotel door. There was no answer. Sam used the key to get into his hotel room. Inside, it looked like his suitcases had spontaneously exploded, and there were empty cans everywhere. On closer inspection, she saw that they were energy drink cans.

Sam called out several times, but he failed to appear. She searched in the bathroom, and even looked inside the ceiling (since he had hidden his laptop up there before, she wondered if _he_ was hiding up there this time). He wasn't there. Then she heard some tinny music coming from behind the bed. She walked around it to find Rodney asleep on the floor in a pair of boxers and one black sock, his 5 o'clock shadow looking more like a 5 day shadow. An mp3 player was in his hand. Sam pulled out one of his earphones and recognized Celine Dion's voice. The song was on repeat.

"Ok, intervention time," she said shaking him awake.

Red, glazed eyes looked up at her in confusion, "what time is it?"

"Time to pull yourself together."

"What are you doing here?"

"I was worried about you. You missed your flight. What's going on?"

He struggled to get up. His eyes popped out when he saw the state of his room…and his self. He frowned and then waved a hand dismissively and collapsed onto the bed, "I have to get her back."

Sam sat on the edge of the bed, "how about we find a way to get them both back?"

"You've got yourself a deal."

Sam and Rodney shared a look and smiled. There was no tension between them now, only relief about having someone who shared the longing to get back a desired one.

The End.


End file.
